Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum director Dani Dayan, who is said to be facing efforts by the Netanyahu government to oust him from the role, received a public message of on Saturday from the Biden administration’s special enjoy for Holocaust issues.
“The US values the crucial work of Yad Vashem and its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face efforts to distort/deny the facts of the Holocaust,” wrote Ellen Germain, the US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the State Department, on X (formerly Twitter).
The tweet appears to acknowledge the reported efforts to remove Dayan from his role and name a political appointee in his stead, and comes amid uneasy ties between Jerusalem and Washington over the hardline coalition’s judicial overhaul push and repeated warnings against the moves.
Dayan, a former head of the Yesha council for West Bank settlers and former Israeli consul-general to New York, previously ran for the Knesset with Gideon Sa’ar’s opposition New Hope party, but failed to win a seat. He was appointed as head of Yad Vashem in 2021 by the previous government under then-prime minister Naftali Bennett.
In recent months, Education Minister Yoav Kisch of the ruling Likud party has been positioning to remove Dayan, according to reports in the Hebrew-language media.
Kisch sent Dayan a letter accusing him of mismanagement at the Holocaust museum, a charge Dayan has strenuously denied. Kisch confirmed the report on the letter to Channel 12 on Thursday.
The U.S. values the crucial work of @YadVashem & its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance, & research. Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face efforts to distort/deny the facts of the Holocaust.
— Ellen Germain (@StateSEHI) September 2, 2023
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kisch are hoping to replace Dayan with Keren Barak, a former MK for their Likud party, the report said.
The network also tied Kisch’s move to the Holocaust museum hosting singer Keren Peles — who has spoken out against the government’s policies and has performed at anti-overhaul protests — on April’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Dayan has refuted Kisch’s allegations and threatened to take the matter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
The unsourced report said the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, was angered that Dayan had invited Peles to perform at the official ceremony in April marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Netanyahu reportedly was upset with Peles for her outspoken support for demonstrations against the government and its judicial overhaul plan.
The network noted that Dayan had signed a contract with Peles months before she voiced her opinions on the matter, but that ties had nonetheless been frosty between him and the Prime Minister’s Office ever since, leading to the push for his removal.
The premier’s office said the report was false.
Ellen Germain, US special envoy on Holocaust issues, listens during a panel before a screening of ‘The US and the Holocaust’ at the United Nations in New York, February 9, 2023. (John Lamparski/Getty Images via JTA)
In his letter to Dayan, Kisch raised concerns over three board members, each of whom were appointed by the previous government: former MK Collette Avital, former MK and former education minister Rabbi Shai Piron, and former MK Shuli Moalem.
Kisch claimed that their appointments were never reviewed by the appropriate selection committee and therefore were illegitimate.
Their presence at board meetings, he wrote, “is a serious failure on your part as chairman of Yad Vashem, calling into question the legality of all the decisions made at management meetings since you were appointed to your position.”
Dayan wrote back that meetings were held according to regulations and that since the board members in question had not been ousted, there was no reason to prevent them from attending.
An unnamed source close to Dayan told Hebrew media Thursday that Kisch was making a “clumsy” attempt to oust Dayan and replace him with a political ally.
The source claimed that “because of Dayan’s integrity [Kisch] did not find any fault and latched onto several technical matters” — principally the presence of board members Avital, Piron, and Moalem, the source said.
Sa’ar posted to X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday that the move to push out Dayan was “illegal, replete with illegitimate interests and above all harms this important and sacred national institution.”
He urged against dragging Yad Vashem into what he called “Netanyahu’s vendetta machine.”
Kisch recently had to backtrack on an attempt to install a political appointee as head of the Israel National Library after a massive outcry that said the move would destroy the independence of the national institution.
